Study finds the ideal length for your next holiday

life
27/07/2018

Most of us will try and plan a holiday where we get the most time off work as humanly possible - but it turns out longer may not necessarily mean better.

A study by Finland's University of Tampere has found that the ideal length for a holiday away from work is actually between 7 to 11 days. This length was found to be the most benefincial for the holiday-er's health and well-being overall.

The reason this specific amount of time was found to be the most beneficial was related to work stress - if your holiday is shorter than this you don't have a chance to fully "switch off", and if it's longer, you may begin to worry about your tasks and responsibilities piling up in your absence.

"Vacations represent the longest period of temporary absence from work and may, therefore, constitute a more powerful respite opportunity than shorter rest intervals," the study's researchers said.

"Employees are often unable to recover sufficiently during short respites from work due to increasingly permeable boundaries between work and home domains, long working hours, working overtime and prolonged physiological activation as a result of preoccupation with work. Our results showed that health and wellness rapidly increase after the start of the holiday and seemed to peak on the eighth vacation day."

The study may not be completely reliable as it was only conducted on a sample of 54, and they were all aware of the purposes of the study which may have impacted their answers - but it is still worth noting!

So make sure you think it over while planning your next holiday, and maybe save up some of those annual leave days for another mini holiday later on.